August 1966

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<<	August 1966					>>
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
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21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

The following events occurred in August 1966:

August 1, 1966 (Monday)

• China's leader, Mao Zedong expresses his personal approval and support for the Red Guards in a letter to Tsinghua University Red Guards.
• A military coup occurs in Nigeria; General Yakubu Gowon takes over.
• Died: Charles Whitman, 25, US student, shot dead by police after killing 13 people and wounding 31 others in a sniper attack from the top of the University of Texas at Austin Main Building tower

August 2, 1966 (Tuesday)

• The Soviet Union's Sukhoi Su-17 attack aircraft makes its first flight, with V. S. Ilyushin at the controls, becoming the first Soviet variable geometry aircraft. Wilson
• The Spanish government forbids overflights by British military aircraft.
• The Aermacchi MB-326 aircraft breaks the speed record over a 3 km straight, at 871 km/h.

August 3, 1966 (Wednesday)

• Died: Lenny Bruce, 40, US comedian (morphine poisoning)

August 4, 1966 (Thursday)

• The 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games open in Kingston, Jamaica. It is the first time the Games have been held outside the "White Dominions".
• The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966 open in Portillo, Chile.
• Born: Leonid Rozhetskin, Russian financier and lawyer (missing since 2006)

August 5, 1966 (Friday)

• Groundbreaking takes place for the World Trade Center in New York City, US.
• Martin Luther King Jr. leads a civil rights march in Chicago, US, during which he is struck by a rock thrown from an angry white mob.
• The Soviet Union protests against damage to one of its merchant ships in a North Vietnamese port, caused by American air attacks.
• The Caesars Palace hotel and casino opens in Las Vegas, US.
• The Beatles' Revolver LP is released in the United Kingdom.

August 6, 1966 (Saturday)

Braniff Flight 250, a BAC 1-11-203AE, encounters severe turbulence when it enters an active squall line and crashes near Falls City, Nebraska, US after losing its right wing, right stabilizer, and tailfin. All 42 people on board are killed.

• René Barrientos takes office as the president of Bolivia.
• The Salazar Bridge (now the 25 de Abril Bridge) opens in Lisbon, Portugal.

August 7, 1966 (Sunday)

• Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan, US.
• Born: Jimmy Wales, American co-founder of Wikipedia, in Huntsville, Alabama.

August 8, 1966 (Monday)

• Born: Chris Eubank, British boxer, in Dulwich, London
• Died: Erik Molnár, 71, Hungarian politician

August 9, 1966 (Tuesday)

• Died: Giorgi Leonidze, 66, Georgian poet and author

August 10, 1966 (Wednesday)

• An East German court sentences Günter Laudahn to life imprisonment for spying for the United States.
• Lunar Orbiter 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit the moon, is launched.

August 11, 1966 (Thursday)

• A Lisunov Li-2 (registration YR-TAN) operated by Tarom crashes in the Lotriora Valley, Romania, killing all 24 people on board.
• Soviet cargo ship SS Dashava runs aground in the Great Belt, Denmark, whilst going to the assistance of Mystitchi, another Soviet ship that had run aground three days earlier. The teleprinter hotline between the White House and the Kremlin is cut.
• The Beatles hold a press conference in Chicago, during which John Lennon apologizes for his "more popular than Jesus" remark, saying, "I didn't mean it as a lousy anti-religious thing."
• Born: Juan María Solare, Argentine composer, in Buenos Aires
• Died: LTJG David Brostrom and EN2 Jerry Phillips, US naval officer and crewman, when their ship, Point Welcome, is attacked by three aircraft of the U.S. Air Force, while on patrol in the waters near the mouth of the Cua Viet River, in a "friendly fire" incident.

August 12, 1966 (Friday)

• Massacre of Braybrook Street: Harry Roberts, John Duddy and Jack Witney shoot dead 3 plainclothes policemen in London; they are later sentenced to life imprisonment.
• Died: Mike McTigue, 73, Irish boxer

August 13, 1966 (Saturday)

• In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong begins the Cultural Revolution to purge and reorganize China's Communist Party.
• An earthquake in Varto town, Turkey, kills 2,394 and injures 10,000.

August 14, 1966 (Sunday)

• A passenger train is derailed when it runs into a landslip at Ardoch, Dumfriesshire, Scotland.
• Born: Halle Berry, African-American actress, in Cleveland, Ohio

August 15, 1966 (Monday)

• Syrian forces open fire on an Israeli patrol boat that has run aground on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, leading to combat between the Israeli and Syrian air forces. Israel claims two Syrian jets shot down.
• John Hay Whitney announces the closure of the New York Herald Tribune, four months after its last edition appeared.

August 16, 1966 (Tuesday)

• Vietnam War: The House Un-American Activities Committee starts investigating Americans who have aided the Viet Cong, with the intent to make these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 are arrested.

August 17, 1966 (Wednesday)

• Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Republic begin negotiations in Kuwait to end the war in Yemen.
• A Douglas Dakota (registration G-AOFZ) operated by Gulf Aviation crashes on takeoff from Muscat, Oman, due to loss of power caused by pilot error; all 20 people on board survive, but the aircraft is written off.
• A Douglas DC-3 (registration N28343) operated by Lauderdale Leasing crashes near Mérida, Mexico, while on a smuggling flight; both pilots survive, but the aircraft is written off.
• Died: François Piétri, 84, French politician

August 18, 1966 (Thursday)

• Vietnam War – Battle of Long Tan: D Company, 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, meets and defeats a Viet Cong force estimated to be four times larger, in Phuoc Tuy Province, Republic of Vietnam.

August 19, 1966 (Friday)

• Died: Fritz Bleyl, 85, German Expressionist artist and architect

August 20, 1966 (Saturday)

• The 1966 European Aquatics Championships open in Utrecht, Netherlands.
• The 1966–67 Bundesliga season begins in Germany.
• Born: Enrico Letta, Italian politician, Prime Minister 2013-2014, in Pisa

August 21, 1966 (Sunday)

• Seven men are sentenced to death in Egypt, for anti-Nasser agitation.
• Greg Buckingham of the US breaks his own world record in the 200 metres individual medley swimming event, at a competition in Lincoln, Nebraska.

August 22, 1966 (Monday)

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is established.
• The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC), predecessor of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), is formed.

August 23, 1966 (Tuesday)

• US victory ship SS Baton Rouge Victory is sunk at Saigon, Vietnam, by a Vietcong mine.
• Died: Francis Xavier Bushman, 83, US actor, director and screenwriter.

August 24, 1966 (Wednesday)

• The Doors begin recording their début LP of the same name.
• Tom Stoppard's tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead receives its première at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

August 25, 1966 (Thursday)

• Born: Agostino Abbagnale, Italian rower, in Pompei; Antonie Kamerling, Dutch actor and musician, in Arnhem (died 2010)

August 26, 1966 (Friday)

• Riots occur in French Somaliland.
• The first battle between the South African Air Force and the South African Police with PLAN, the armed wing of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), takes place at Ongulumbashe in Northern South West Africa during Operation Blue Wildebeest. This battle starts the South African Border War which continues until 1989.

August 27, 1966 (Saturday)

• An Aeroflot Il-18V overshoots the runway on takeoff with a locked rudder at Arkhangelsk Airport. The aircraft was due to operate a domestic scheduled Arkhangelsk-Leningrad passenger service as Flight 3772.
• Born: Juhan Parts, Estonian Prime Minister 2003-2005, in Tallinn.

August 28, 1966 (Sunday)

• The Soviet Union announces that it is training North Vietnamese Air Force pilots.

August 29, 1966 (Monday)

• The Beatles end their US tour with a concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It is their last ever performance as a live touring band

August 30, 1966 (Tuesday)

• France offers independence to French Somaliland (later Djibouti in 1977).
• The 1966 European Athletics Championships open in Budapest, Hungary.

August 31, 1966 (Wednesday)

• Leo Horn referees his last soccer match, between Ajax and Bulgaria.
• Born: Thierry Champion, French tennis player, in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Gard
• Died: Alexis Caron, 67, Canadian politician